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Saturday, 14 March 2015

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and
one-time Senator representing Anambra North
Senatorial Zone, Alphonsus Igbeke, have gone to
court to stop the Presidential Candidate of the
All Progressives Congress (APC), General

•Text courtesy of Channels TV. Photo shows
Buhari.

Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd), from contesting in
the election.
In the suit filed at the Federal High in Awka the
capital of Anambra State, the plaintiffs claim
General Buhari had beached relevant provisions
of the constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria and the Electoral Act 2010.
The Plaintiffs through their lawyer, Mr
Nsobundu, had filed a nine-paragraph
originating summon and a 22-paragraph
Affidavit in support before the court presided
over by Justice M.I. Abubakar in a suit number
FHC/AWKA/CS/117/2015 and dated March 12
2015.
In a press conference, Senator Igbeke said the
suit filed by himself and APGA, sought an order
declaring that General Buhari is not
constitutionally qualified for the office of the
president having failed to comply with the
provisions of section 131, sub-section A, C, and
D of the 1999 constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria and section 31 of the
Electoral Act 2010.
He said it was contained in suit that the
candidate was seeking election on a non-existing
platform, the All Progressives Congress Party
(APCP), instead of the All Progressives Congress
(APC).
Senator Igbeke also said that General Buhari
failed to file his birth certificate, failed to
provide evidence of meeting educational
qualification for contesting for president and
also made a false claim in his voter card of
being a civil servant.
A school attended by General Buhari had in the
heat of the certificate controversy released
General Buhari’s statement of result.
General Buhari had also dismissed the claims
that he had did not possess the required
credentials to vie for the position of the
President.

Many of the candidates writing the ongoing Joint
Admissions and Matriculation (JAMB) Unified
Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) have
expressed their grievances over the sudden
slash of the time given to them to finish their
papers.
Some of the affected students writing the
examination, which kicked off on March 9 and
ends on the 21st, voiced out their frustrations to
News Express Correspondent in Ibadan.
Mariam Ahmed Olayinka, who sat for the
Computer Based Test (CBT) exam at the ICT
Centre, The Polytechnic Ibadan, said she was
slated to write her exam from 1:30 p.m., as
stated on her slip, but her batch was called in
at about 5pm – after about four hours delay.
Her words: “We were supposed to start the
exams at 1:30 p.m., but we started 5pm. We
were given three and a half hours to finish up,
but we spent 2 hours for the four papers. At
exactly 7pm, while we were still on the
computer, they asked us to stand up and leave
the hall. We were shouting that we had not
finished, but they went ahead to shut the server
down. This is a sad moment for me and I am
not happy about it.
“With this, I scored 185. I knew if I had done
the last paper, mathematics, I would have
scored more excellently. My parents have been
hurling insults at me since then as if I caused it.
My time was still remaining 1:30 minutes on the
system before they asked me to leave.”
Another candidate who spoke today on the
same development, Olaonipekun Ifeoluwa, JAMB
officials and other invigilators monitoring the
examination decided to shut down the server
before time as it was getting dark. She disclosed
that some of the invigilators complained that
they had children at home to go and cater for.
Ifeoluwa also complained about the slow speed
of the computer systems available for the
examination, which, she said, unnecessarily
slowed down the candidates.
According to Ifeoluwa, “When you click on an
answer for a particular question, it takes time
before it responds to bring another consequent
question. This poor process wastes much of our
time. Most of us were not able to finish up as a
result. This CBT exam should be proscribed
because it has affected us much and we don’t
want a continuation of it.”

Two years to the day after he was elected to
lead the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics, Pope
Francis said today that he expects to have only
a short papacy.
An ABC News report quoted him as telling
Mexican broadcaster Televisa: “I have the feeling
that my Pontificate will be brief, 4 or 5 years; I
do not know, even 2 or 3.
“I feel that the Lord has placed me here for a
short time, and nothing more.”
The report said the 78-year-old pontiff
compared the feeling to “a gambler who
convinces himself he will lose so he won’t be
disappointed. And if he wins, he’s happy.”
When asked if he liked being pope, Francis
reportedly told the interviewer that he doesn’t
mind, but that he also wouldn’t mind some
degree of anonymity. “The only thing I would
like is to go out one day, without being
recognized, and go to a pizzeria for a pizza,” he
was quoted to have said.
Francis, who assumed the office following the
resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, marked the
second anniversary as pope by hearing
confessions at the Vatican.

Friday, 13 March 2015

Director of Media and Publicity of the Peoples
Democratic Party Presidential Campaign
Organisation (PDPPCO), Chief Femi Fani-Kayode
has assured corrupt leaders of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) that nemesis would
soon catch up with them.
Fani-Kayode spoke against the backdrop of a
forged letter purportedly signed by the Chief of
Staff to the President, Brigadier Jones Arogbofa
and believed to have been circulated by the
opposition APC.
According to him, “We have said it before and
we shall say it again: the entire leadership of
the APC is suffering from paranoia and delusion.
They are hiding under their beds and running
from their own shadows. This is a clear case of
the biblical provisions that say ‘there is no peace
for the wicked’ and that ‘the wicked run even
when no-one is pursuing them.’ These people
have lost their peace and they are running even
when no-one is pursuing them.
“If they are so sure of winning the election and
if their hands are clean then why should they be
having nightmares about the EFCC? The truth is
that they are a party that are struggling with
their shady past and the sordid catalogue of
horrendous sins and crimes that have been
committed by their leaders over the years.
“It does not take a letter from the Chief of Staff
to the President to the EFCC Chairman to
provoke the security agencies to swing into
action against them. Given the grave, serious
and sordid allegations that have been made
against most of them over the last few weeks in
various television documentaries the Nigerian
people themselves are asking questions and
demanding answers.
“As a matter of fact even Nigeria’s partners and
friends in the international

Photo of kayode

community are
asking those same questions and demanding
answers too.
“When the de facto leader of the APC captures
the resources of the whole of south western
Nigeria for himself, his cronies and his loved
ones, when another turns his state into his
personal feudal colony and when another
squanders PTF funds and refuses to show any
remorse or contrition for his actions then you
know that trouble is coming. The truth is that
the chickens are coming home to roost.
“There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that
the APC leaders, including a few of their sitting
and former governors, will eventually face the
music for their horrendous crimes and atrocities
against the Nigerian people. They can feel the
noose tightening around their necks and
consequently they are trembling and squealing
like babies.
“The truth is this: whether they like it or not
nemesis will soon catch up with them and they
will answer for their many crimes.
“All the paranoid and absurd press statements
in the world and all their nebulous and
nonsensical allegations or claims of persecution
and Federal Government conspiracies against
them cannot stop that. God Himself is against
them and sooner than later they shall feel His
wrath and taste of the awesome power of His
word.”

The Director General of the National Intelligence
Agency (NIA), Ambassador Ayodele Oke, has
declared that “before March 28, no territory of
Nigeria will be under control of Boko Haram.”
He gave the assurance Wednesday in the United
States of America while attending an event at
the Atlantic Council, Washington.
Oke, in an interview with Foreign Policy
magazine, deflected criticisms that the on-going
offensive against Boko Haram launched since the
postponement of the presidential ballot from
Feb. 14 to March 28 indicates the delay was a
political move by incumbent Goodluck Jonathan.
“It is above partisan politics when we are
discussing national security,” he said.
“Nigerians need this democracy more than the
international community does,” he further said.
Oke did take more seriously was Boko Haram’s
recent claim they are now aligned to the Islamic
State, which they announced in a video posted
online on Saturday. That connection, if proven
real, would be especially dangerous because of
the financial support ISIS could provide to Boko
Haram.
Although many have dismissed the group’s
announcement as mere propaganda, Oke said
the Nigerian government is examining it closely.
“Never underrate what they’re planning to do or
who they’re meeting,” he said. “We should deal
with it rather an ignoring it and coming back to
say we made an egregious error.”
According to an online story by Foreign Policy,
“both Oke and Gabriel E. Okoi, Nigeria’s chief of
defence intelligence, took turns jabbing at the
American response to Nigeria’s request for
military assistance, including the cancellation of
an American training programme for the
Nigerian military in late 2014. The U.S. will not
provide military equipment to the Nigerian
military due to past human rights violations, but
Okoi said the training programme the Americans
offered was meant for more modern equipment
than the Nigerian army could provide.
“Our friends disappointed us,” he reportedly
said. “We could not get the arms we needed,
nor could we get the ammunition.”
“We begged…almost on our knees begging
people to help us.”
The report said that Okoi also claimed that even
when it came to providing real-time intelligence,
the United States did not act fast enough.
“We had to shout before you acted,” he was
quoted as having said.
And his response to Americans and other
politicians who claim they’ve done more than
enough?
“Please, check yourselves.”